Well, ah like tae get from A to B in style and there’s nothin’ better than gliding along on the back ‘o a nightsaber or, if ye feel like takin’ tae the skies, a nether drake. Tae be honest wi ye, ah think ah’m gonnae huv tae start my own stables wi all the mounts I have!

Blame Fim for this post… and the title. It’s his fault. No really. He’s ‘the man’ when it comes to post-title-jokes which invariably make me groan. Go check out some of them here.

Mounts are our companions, always with us and taking us to places we wish to go faster than we could on foot. They are a cornerstone of the WoW economy - with many people spending the majority of their gold on getting one. They can be a status symbol, a roleplaying companion or simply a fast way from A to B but for a few people one is not enough!

Personal Mounts
I loves them all even though I don’t really have any special ones. A while ago I posted about getting my mist ’saber - a mount I’ve wanted for quite some time and was asked if I had named it. I haven’t yet, but I’ve not been averse to doing so in the past when I’ve been so fond of a mount or worked hard to get it.

Mharai, my first druid, was on an RP server. Her ’schtick’ was that she was an avid collector and breeder of oversize mounts for the use of Tauren. I’m not really into ‘epic’ roleplaying, can you tell? *ahem*

I’ve never owned a kodo on Mharai and set out to get a wolf for her at 40. It took me until level 43 to get it (not sure why) but I was happy and that wolf was the first mount I ever named: Ice. She was a brown wolf but I named her for the glacier-ice green/blue of her eyes. At 60 I got myself a white wolf and then set out towards Outlands with a greedy eye on all of the mounts I could now work towards.

I was always sorely disappointed that Tauren couldn’t ride some mounts - with a happy moment coming when I found that pvp raptors were Tauren-approved. I spent some time in battleground and came out with a rather huge lizard. If you’ve never seen a Tauren on a raptor you’re missing out. Doubly so as you’ll never have seen them on a raptor with the Sen’jin village buff, Winterfall Firewater and Bloodlust! (and, I’ve been told, the cookies from the Halloween Event also stack).

Collecting
Anyway! Like many others I enjoy collecting mounts and will go to silly degrees just to get myself one. I really do like how Blizzard has noticed the love of new mounts and made them available by, for instance, relatively easy rep-grinds. It’s something a little easier than pet collecting (though I do that too) but with more of a presence (I mean, who doesn’t gawp when someone rides by with the Anzu mount?)

Prior to patch 1.something it used to be the mount which cost (for example) 80 gold and the training was cheap. When this was changed (and subsequently the riding skill was changed to be across the board for all mount types) it meant that mount collecting was within the reach of more than just a rich few.

Mounts are something which you can get by yourself, with a group and pvp-ing - they have been integrated into all the common aspects of the game and something relatively rare is available to pretty much any level of player. They are not just a creature / flying machine to get around on but, like our gear, are status symbols. They also have the added benefit of increasing individuality in a world where often everyone is wearing nearly the same thing within their class!

The Burning Collectors?

Burning Crusade has catapulted mount collecting to a whole new level, in my mind. Before TBC, you were limited to your faction’s mounts and even getting some of those were hard (Troll and Nelfen mounts come to mind). PvP ones weren’t so easy to get and there were only a few rare dropped mounts in high level instances / raids (Tiger and Raptor from ZG, Baron’s Mount from Stratholme).

Burning Crusade changed all of that. Blizzard seem to have tuned into the fact that mounts were coveted and people would grind / pay rather a lot for them. Ok, they knew this already but half of that was a speed issue. What they had discovered here was the fact that people would pay or grind for a visual change rather than just a speed one. TBC saw an explosion of mounting options, not to mention a whole new category added - flying mounts.

Netherwing drakes were some of the first previewed (or, at least, some analogue thereof - I think they used the old drake model for the announcement) and I was terribly excited at the thought of riding around on a huge dragon! It felt so damned fantasy. Then, when I finally got to Outland, (rerolled at the start of TBC, mind) I realised this was in no way my only option. They had added not only the drakes to the basic selection of gryphons / wyverns but also Nether Rays and a plethora of ground mounts.

The talbuk seems to have been a huge hit as do the Amani Bears and players seem to love the inclusion of the other low-drop-rate mounts (Anzu bird, Midnight, Phoenix, White Hawkstrider). For some reason people didn’t seem to ‘click’ so well with the Cenarion Expedition hippogryphs, but maybe their expense is why I see so few!

Of course, there was also the addition of new racial ground mounts - Elekk’s and Hawkstriders. Both seem to have taken some ribbing (eww ugly huge mount and chooocooobooo or chicken) but I think each has their own loyal supporters.

Back to the Future?
I’m shying away from writing anything about Wrath at the moment as I really don’t think it’s worth commenting on stuff which hasn’t even gotten past alpha yet and will likely change a whole lot but some of the things concerning mounts piqued my interest. The following quote comes from the official website, for instance.

“Certain types of vehicles and mounts can now carry passengers, making it possible for players to, for example, break a prisoner out of a tightly guarded compound by attempting a daring escape on horseback… Even beyond the ability for vehicles to hold passengers, Wrath of the Lich King introduces an aerial combat system that will add a new dimension to gameplay.”

Looking at this and thinking in general terms I was wondering how Wrath might affect the ‘mount scene’ and what the new tier of riding skill would give us. I had, at first, assumed that we’d simply been given a riding ‘pass’ to allow us to ride in Northrend - some crazy quest thought up by gnomes which meant we had to have some type of license. However, it seems the next ‘tier’ will be one which effects not only ourselves and our speed but also our gameplay. Mounts, in Wrath, seem to have become more integral to play than ever before.

I’m also looking forward to seeing what WotLK brings by way of new mounts looks-wise. I’ve seen pics here and there of polar/grizly bear mounts and zhevra mounts. Both of these would be awesome (I mean, c’mon, a dwarf on a bear? That right there is win) as would being able to ride those new Shovel Tusks - hell, I want to know why I couldn’t get a Clefthoof mount!

An awesome resource for mounts is Mania’s new project Warcraft Mounts. Go check it out and see if there’s anything you fancy working towards!

Well, them elfs has been tryin’ tae keep me away fae their big kitties fer a while now but they realised that I’d do just aboot anythin’ to get my hands on one and finally decided to gie me one o’ the ones that woulda been too small fer a long-legged over-tall elf anyway!

Ding Exalted - Darnassus!

It’s been a long time coming, for me. I mentioned somewhere before that I was getting close to exalted but not-quite-there. Well, now I got off my rear end and got around to mailing all the runecloth from my various alts over to Aurik and handing them in.

Dryn, my up-and-coming hunter, had made me a tidy stash of runecloth and I only had to buy 13 pieces to complete my rep grind! For the first time ever I sold a mount (pvp-kitty) and then went to buy myself the [Reins of the Swift Mistsaber]. Why all that bother for such a tiny change? No idea, but it makes me happy.

Haud’ on tight, we’re goin fer a ride on the back o’ a dragon. This is the life, wheee!

I got my Netherdrake a week or two back but never really got around to mentioning it (it’s my second character to get one so I guess it’s not quite as exciting). Anyways, I have a habit of taking pictures when I find myself randomly in an area with nice lighting or somesuch and the above I took one morning whilst doing my dailies. I liked the screenie so much I made a very simple desktop (click on the pic for that). Nothing amazing as I really wanted a plain background which was softer than my old one. Shame that I couldn’t zoom out further to catch the tail…

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Well, them Skyguard have been tellin’ me for a while that mah riding ability is gettin’ pretty good so ah decided tae try one of the flat, ugly buggers they ride. Since we’re aw pals they even gave me a discount!

Epic flying mount! Finally! The biggest ’setback’ I felt when I changed back to my rogue wasn’t the ten levels and gearing up I had to do but the lack of an epic flying mount. I know a lot of people see it as a waste of time to get an epic flyer, not to mention a waste of gold, but I feel it’s well worth it.At the most basic level it opens up some new soloable daily quests - until now I had about 7 or 8 I could reliably do daily by myself - Two at the Skyguard Outpost in Terrokkar, two in the Blade’s Edge Mountain base, two at Ogri’la, the cooking daily and, sometimes, the pvp daily. Read more

So, as thon lassie pointed oot - the Lunar Festival ain’t all aboot dancin’ and getting yersel’ drunk. It’s aboot makin’ sure yer ancestors ken ye still remember them!

Or, in other words, rep grind!

The minute I knew there was a big cat mount in WoW I wanted it. Call me a boring sheep, whatever, I like big cats and I was for having one. I looked up how to get Darnassus rep at the time and decided the PvP route wasn’t likely (this was before the honour system changes) since I didnt pvp very much and sucked at it besides. I set out to do all of the quests I could that gave Darnassus rep but I’d gotten past the level where diminishing returns meant no rep for low level quests (again, this has since changed). I left WoW for a bit without, sadly, having ever reached that particular goal.

When I came back I had gained a bit more of an interest in PvP and quickly got myself one of the kitties-for-honour (welfare kitty?) - however I don’t like those nearly as much as the Darnassus ones (and, hey, it’s a matter of principle for me to finish now that I’ve started!). With the new diminishing returns meaning I could still get honour for the really low level quests I went back and did all of the starting ones; I put all of the runecloth I got from levelling through Hellfire / Zangarmarsh into Darnassus rep too and any morrowgrain I could make.

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Well, if it isnae a spiffy new tabard for me! Looks right guid wi’ aw mah other green and purple gear, dont’cha think?

I’m not a huge tabard junkie but one I loved dearly from the day I got it on Mharai was the Purple Trophy Tabard of the Illidari. Whilst running through Shadowmoon Valley someone asked me if I wanted to join to do some group quests and I jumped right on the chance as I had quite a few left to complete. We cleared our way through them, doing the one where you have to disguise yourself as a blood elf whilst kiling the large rock giants. I mentioned to the group at the time that I wished I could get one of the tabards the blood elves wore as they looked so awesome and thought nothing more of it. Of course, when I went to hand in the reward from the other quest which goes alongside it - Battle of the Crimson Watch - I was ecstatic to find I had gotten one as a bonus reward.

Fast-forward to yesterday. Grinding Scryer rep I notice the tabards again and decided I missed having one. I hadn’t managed to get a group to do that quest on Aurik as most people on the server are well past needing it. A few tentative prods in guild later, though, I struck lucky and got a few people who’d not done it or still needed it on an alt!

They’ve seriously nerfed that battle! I remember it taking us three attempts and even when we did manage it finally we had scraped through by the skin of our teeth, having used a battle res and pots etc. Yesterday we did it with four and, although the mage died, I reckon we could have easily done it with less. Reports say people have done it with two! Ah well, I walked away with a completed quest so I guess I’m happy. Lucky sod that I am, I managed to get the green one this time. Hooray!

Would be nice if Blizz added more of these kind of tabards. Although every faction has one at exalted in Outlands (at least I think so…) not all of them look very good. I quite like the Sporeggar tabard but the Skyguard and Ogri’la tabards are a bit too oddly coloured for me.

One other tabard I picked up yesterday was the Scryers one. Finally exalted. Whoohoo!